Magic Hacker Harry
by ZelotOneShotter
Summary: Desperation can cause unheard of feats. None more powerful than the desperate desire of a mother protecting her child. Lily Potter would never realise the power she gave her son, but then, neither would the Dark Lord...
1. Chapter 1

AN: I know I've been AFK for a bit, life got in the way.

This is something that has been annoying me in my brain for a long time since I was told about an anime by my lil brother.

so if you can guess what anime it was that inspired this, you get a cookie!

Shouldn't be that hard.

* * *

Lily Potter ne Evans was a smart woman, she liked to think. Smarter than most. When Albus Dumbledore had informed both James and herself that the Dark Lord Voldemort had targeted them Lily had been sceptical and continued to be until the first time the maniac had attacked them.

After the first time they had been attacked, without being told specifically why by Dumbledore, Lily knew that it was only going to be a matter of time before they ran out of luck and they weren't going to be able to flee. Lily wasn't so full of herself that she didn't realize that the only reason they were alive still was because of luck, Dumbledore might have said it was because of the Order of the Pheonix but Lily knew better.

Which was why, after the first attack, Lily had taken up researching magic, ignoring any and all boundaries, Dark, Light, Grey… none of that mattered to Lily as she researched.

Lily researched on everything she could think of which she could use to help her son; as Lily knew Harry as Voldemort's true target, Lily and James were just in the way.

Lily remembered that _things_ words with a shiver.

"Surrender the child and your lives will be spared."

The nerve of that _thing_ to ask that of a mother!

So on the morning of October 31st when Lily had woken with an ominous feeling within her gut, which she had always taken to acting on, she put her research into practice.

Lily knew, had learned during her months of research on magic, that spells cast were a _shaped intent_ projected form of a wizard or witches magic, the spell carried the will of the caster out of the magical plane into the physical plane.

With this in mind Lily had, much to James' confusion, asked that James let her cast on him a spell, one that she had invented, that would record the magic that was cast on him, not the spell but the magic behind it.

She theorized that all magic cast from any one person was the same, and with that theory Lily planned on recording the magic with a simple, fundamental concept.

Now she had the data, now she just needed a way to use it, and after months of frustrating obstructions she managed to develop the partner to the magic signature recorder.

It was a mix of different magics but it worked like a projector screen displayed above her open palm.

Once Lily had that down, she added in the data.

If [Magic 1] = [Magic 2] + [Magic 3] Then [Magic 1] + [Magic 4] = False

[Magic 1] being Voldemort's Magic.

[Magic 2] being the magic recorded being cast on James.

[Magic 3] being the magic recorded being cast on Lily.

[Magic 4] being the very luckily recorded accidental magic from Harry.

And False meaning to negate the magic cast altogether.

Essentially Lily planned a rune schema that would negate all magic cast from Voldemort to her Harry with the magic recorded from James and herself, in essence shielding her son from all magic cast on Harry from Voldemort.

Magical signatures could not be changed in any way after all.

After the 3rd attack from Voldemort on her family Lily believed that she had everything set.

Unfortunately for all involved, the inclusion of Soul Magic in the form of the horcrux' of Tom Riddle Jr threw everything into chaos, corrupting the schema to do a lot more than what it was meant to.

See what Lily had unknowingly done, was create a means of accessing the natural flow of ambient magic in the living plane, changing, adding or subtracting to the whole magical spectrum.

She had created a means to alter magic, to change it for every witch, wizard or magical being, anything that could access the magical plane.

And she gave the master access to her toddler child.

Lily Potter created the Hacker Magician.

* * *

AN: so yeah, not nearly as long as what i would normally write for an intro, but it was an idea i decided to flush out, see what came of it.

If something similar already exists, that isn't a slash, pro Weasley, Pro Dumbledore, Pro Hermione, share the name.

Now maybe i can think more clearly on the other plots running around my head.

Who knows.

Oh, and if anyone who reads this, can think of a better summery, PM me, because I know the one I have at the moment is very lacking.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: A bit more flushing out... with so much I _can_ do, it's hard to decide _how_ to do it, as I'm sure my fellow fanfic authors reading this can agree.

* * *

Harry stared into the darkness of the stairs cupboard, eyeing the strange glowing symbols coalescing above his head amidst sweeping waves. For as long as he could remember he could see symbols everywhere he looked, mostly around his body and when he went outside for yard work, a fuzzy looking dome around the block where Number 4 resided. He could even play with the symbols sometimes, like now, but his playtime usually ended up with 'freak stuff' happening and Harry got in trouble for it every time so he eventually stopped playing with it.

The few times he had tried 'playing' with it, ghostly images would shimmer into being at his fingertips, his fingers leaving cloud like lines in their wake underneath a swath of gibberish Harry couldn't understand but had seen around, mostly the numbers around the neighbourhood and letters from the mail he was made to retrieve for his Aunt Uncle.

For the past 3, nearly 4 years Harry had learned to adapt to the strangeness that he could see which mostly surrounded him, his Aunt Petunia and the area of Privet Drive, and ignore it for the most part; but Harry noticed the 'aura' (what he called it for a lack of a better term) surrounding him and Privet Drive erupted into a mad display of red, orange and green once every year, around 'Freak Day' as his relatives called it. And the symbols he associated with the dome changed a little bit at the end of the show.

Fortunately for Harry, unfortunate for everyone else, he was due to start school with his cousin Dudley this year, and his understanding of what exactly he was seeing would begin to unravel the mysteries plaguing him.

0v0

It took Harry 6 months to grasp the barest sense of what he was seeing, and by the time he realized the tip of the iceberg he was staring at, well, he'd risk all the punishments from the whale of a man Vernon without a second thought if it meant he'd gain just a fraction more understanding of it.

The dome, Harry determined, was tied between Petunia and himself (he all but smacked himself in the head for having needed so long to figure something that obvious out) and the change's he witnessed was a change in the dome, weather it was from him or Petunia he didn't know yet.

'Actually it's probably from me, Aunt Petunia doesn't have the same _feel_ as I do.' Thought Harry one evening in the cupboard as the house lay dark as the Dursley's slept. Harry was 'feeling' the dome, his mind transfixed on the data running through his minds' eye.

'Maybe that is what the problem is!' Harry thought with a start.

Unknowingly to Harry, his sudden thought, so close to the 'feel' of the dome that Harry could feel was just out of touch, took hold of that thought and added it to the end of the ward set in place.

Like a P.S on a letter.

Only this, this changed everything about the ward set in place between the blood relatives of one Lily Potter nee Evans.

0v0

It was a typical day for Petunia, she woke up, woke up Vernon and Dudley then went downstairs to smack on the cupboard door that housed her lout of a nephew.

Only instead of a sharp knock there was a dull BANG as the handle on the cupboard door blew off.

Petunia screamed, this more so waking Harry up than the noise of the handle exploding. Petunia did have a shrill voice when the occasion arose.

Harry opened the cupboard door, adjusting his wire framed glasses to see his Aunty looking at her hands in absolute horror, as if they were drenched in blood or something equally messy, and in her mind disgusting.

Harry paused a moment, his body in mid motion of leaving to start the Dursley's breakfast when he 'felt' it. Felt the same feeling like the dome but it was coming from his Aunt Petunia now.

'Huh?' was all that the thought the 6 year old boy could muster up.

"Aunt Petunia, are you like me now?" Harry asked curiously, forgetting that he wasn't actually allowed to ask questions, more so with Uncle Vernon then with Aunt Petunia but the rule still counted.

Harry waited on baited breath as he watched his Aunt look at her hands to Harry and back again half a dozen times before the prim and proper woman finally closed her gaping mouth, her eyes finally settling on Harry.

"Get to breakfast, quickly." She ordered stiffly, but not quite as she would usually, her tone was not nearly as harsh as Harry had heard it on previous occasions.

Doing as he was told, Harry was quick to start the usual breakfast that Petunia had thoroughly drilled into him how to prepare months ago, he had to 'earn his keep' around the house as Vernon liked to say, never mind that he was small boy and shouldn't have to do what the adults should.

Today as a Saturday, the Dursley's were going to go to see Vernon's sister, Marge and this presented Petunia with a very unique opportunity, as Petunia really didn't like the portly woman at all.

"Vernon dear, I know we are supposed to go see Marge today but I woke up feeling very strange; why don't you take Dudley with you and I'll keep an eye on the brat, I feel it's time I start to _teach_ him a few things as well." Petunia said as the two males' Dursley tore through their food.

Taking note of the inflection on the way she said teach, Vernon's eyes glazed happily.

"A capital idea Pet, the _boy_ needs to learn his lessons from everyone in this family." He beamed at her proudly, before shooting a menacing look at Harry, who was standing by the bench in the kitchen watching the food he prepared vanish before his eyes. For his part, Harry was able to resist the shudder at the meaning behind Vernon's words, oh how he remembered those _lessons_.

After finishing up stuffing their faces, and Petunia eating at a more sedate, ladylike pace, Vernon and Dudley returned to their rooms to get ready to leave; leaving Harry to clean up after them as usual, when Petunia slid her unfinished plate towards him.

"Finish the rest of this." She told him, her voice hushed. Taking this chance Harry darted to the plate of leftovers, ever so eager to fill his empty stomach. Quick to finish the food before Vernon came back downstairs, Harry as quick to start on the clean up as Petunia left to get dressed for the day.

Harry was just finishing up the cleaning up of the Dursley's breakfast 20 minutes later when Vernon and Dudley left the house, leaving Harry alone with Petunia. Petunia was quick to have Harry get dressed, she wasn't going to speak to her nephew when he was wearing what he slept in. moments later the young boy returned.

Silently Petunia directed Harry to the living room, indicating that he sit down.

"Harry…do you know what happened this morning?" she asked in trepidation.

"I think so…maybe?" Harry answered uncertainly. "I think… I might have done something to the dome."

Petunia eyed him sharply nearly making Harry cringe.

"Dome? What dome?" she demanded.

"As long as I can remember, I've been able to see this dome around the street. The dome is connected between you and me somehow and you used it this morning somehow." Harry answered. There was a tense silence for several moments before Harry watched Petunia, struggling to decide on a course of action with this information, left the room with a 'wait here' motion, returning a few minutes later with a blanket and an envelope.

"5 years ago, Vernon and I woke up to find you on our doorstep folded in this blanket, this envelop on top, on the doorstep." Petunia explained, stunning Harry. Taking the envelope Petunia removed its contents, a funny looking paper, from which Harry could feel a funny feeling coming from it

"This letter says that your parents were murdered-"

"That paper feels like the dome." Harry said cutting her off, not having heard most of what his aunt had said as he was feeling the aura around the letter, that swirled with symbols and letters Harry didn't recognize. Then his aunt's words registered in his mind.

"My parents…were murdered?" he gasped. "But… but you always told me that they died in a ca crash! Why? Why did you lie?" he demanded.

"Your uncle has never liked you and was happy telling you lies as a way to hurt you, even when you didn't know it." Petunia explained, before her eyes turned to the fallen letter. "This letter told me that my sister had died protecting you Harry, sacrificed herself so you would live…because of that you were sent to live with me, your mums only blood relative."

"I don't understand…why were they killed?" Harry asked helplessly, nearly begged. Petunia let out a slow breath.

"Harry… magic is real… that is why your parents are dead, because they could use magic…just like you." Petunia answered.

"But…you always told me that magic wasn't real!" of all the things that Vernon and Petunia had ranted and raved at him whenever something freaky had happened, that was their staple argument.

"We didn't want it to be, we hoped…that if we told it to you enough then it would become true… but now… with this dome around the street and what happened this morning… I… I…." to Harry's total astonishment, Petunia broke down in loud wailing sobs.

Harry just sat there stunned as his aunt let loose years of pent up emotions, his magic beginning to discharge in a steadily building gas like miasma at the revelations that were being unloaded on him, which reacted spectacularly when it eventually wafted to the lone letter.

The area around Privet Drive Little Winging Surrey lit up in a spectacular bright blue flash.

* * *

AN: A wee bit more than last time, no?

A big thank you to manna-chan for the summery help ^.^.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: i was on a roll with Doomsday, the inspiration and motivation led to this.

Enjoy!

* * *

Petunia had always been a jealous person, ever since her parents had come home with her baby sister Lily as a matter of fact. It just grew upon itself as time went on, Lily got everything, the beauty, the attention from everyone weather it was for her looks or her brains and when she was eleven years old, she got to go to a magic school to learn to do magic.

If Petunia held jealousy for her sister before then, it just hitched a rocket ride to Saturn, which quickly morphed to spitefulness and scorn as the years went on. When she had received her rejection letter from Hogwarts Headmaster Dumbledore that had been the final straw, if she didn't have it and couldn't take part in that world, then it didn't deserve her, anything remotely related to that world was dead to her, including her sister.

Years of festering resentment exploded as the one thing that Petunia had coveted in secret for so long was given to her from the son of the sister that she had scorned for so long and she was overcome with feelings she didn't know how to deal with.

One of the most prevalent emotions she as feeling was guilt.

Unknown to Petunia, Harry, whose magic had connected to the letter, which was connected to the dome around the street, had altered more than just having Petunia _feel_ like Harry, it changed the emotions felt between the two that the dome was centred around.

Love and Protection.

As Petunia recounted her childhood to Harry, Harry's magic was slowly adding, through the connection of the letter to the wards, a magical 'subroutine' to the wards steeped on emotions.

Whereas before Petunia felt a raging resentment for Harry and Lily for having magic while she didn't and secretly coveted magic as a whole, now that she had it she never felt so close to her sister, and now her nephew, than she could ever remember feeling towards anything, even her husband and son.

It rewrote the emotions that Harry and Petunia felt towards one another, as technically speaking the dome fed Petunia Harry's raw magic that was being used to power the wards around them, Harry was sharing part of himself with his aunt, the wards with this strange variable made it impossible for there to be conflict for the one who's magic it was centred around to protect.

Finishing her tale, which had taken a long few hours, with Harry butting in a question every so often, Petunia having cried herself of all the tears she had was now holding Harry in a hug so tight and overcome with heartfelt feeling Harry himself was crying.

"Shhh shhh, its ok Harry, everything will be ok from now on, I promise." Petunia said as she ever so gently wiped away Harry's tears. Harry turned his eyes to gaze into Petunia's own, the glimmer of hope in the small boys' eyes Petunia couldn't help but hold Harry tighter.

"Bu-but what about Dudley and Uncle Vernon?" Harry asked, worried that all of this, hat he was feeling and experiencing with his Aunt Petunia would come a jarring halt and Harry would be right back where he was before, totally alone.

"You leave those two to me, nothing bad will happen to you as long as you are my blood." Petunia promised. Harry could only sniffle.

"What's wrong Harry?" Petunia asked concern shining off of her in droves.

"This is the part here I wake up, in my dreams. What if I wake up and this is all a dream?"

"Oh Harry… sweetheart… this is a dream, that came true for you and for me." Petunia managed to saw before she began peppering Harry with light motherly kisses.

0v0

A few hours later as Vernon and Dudley were approaching Number 4 of Privet Drive from Marge's dog breeding farm they felt something around them _shift_. Dudley for his part had no idea what this strangeness was and quickly discarded it in lieu of watching the cars his dad was overtaking, blowing them all a raspberry as they were overtaken.

Vernon however, his mind immediately screamed that the freak had done something freakish. Primal rage built inside of Vernon the closer he got to his home, he'd show that freak what was what, and stepped on the gas, speeding up the car to nearly twice the speed limit on a domestic street.

"Daddy?" Dudley asked, a little uneasily as he saw the outside turn to blurs faster and faster, just missing another car at an intersection he was supposed to give way to.

"Not now son, the freak is due for some punishment as soon as we get home." Vernon replied heatedly, missing the police car he just sped past.

The police officer, seeing the racing car, started her lights and siren and gave chase.

The chase wasn't a very long one as the car nearly crashed to a stop at a house on Privet Drive.

The officer grimaced, she'd heard rumours about this area, none of them good, and as she came to a stop outside the forth house she got a look at her perp.

And grimaced again.

Vernon Dursley.

His reputation proceeded him.

And by the look on his face, he was about to explode.

His purple hue was legend at her husband's workplace at Grunnings Drills. Why her husband worked there she'd never know…

'Lord give me strength to get through this without shooting someone.' She begged before parking her car and exiting the vehicle and marching towards the Dursley household which, with a cop car in front of the house in the early afternoon on a Saturday was garnering a lot of attention from snooping neighbours and gossipers. Her partner hid his presence behind his partner, if just in case his partner needed a surprise advantage, it was a surprisingly good tactic.

"FREAK! Get over here now! I swear if you've done anything freakish I'll wring your neck till it twists off!" the officer's heard just as the officer in front was about to knock on the door.

Inside, Vernon just caught sight of his wife cradling the freak protectively, as if to shield the boy from Vernon's just punishment.

"What have you done to my wife freak?!" Vernon bellowed, charging at the pair, intent of ripping the boy from his wife's arms and beating him bloody.

"You won't touch him Vernon, I won't allow it, never again!" Petunia stated, holding Harry behind her in a display of defence of Harry and a display of defiance to Vernon.

"Pet, the freak has done something to you! Snap out of it!" as impossible as it may seem, the large man that was Vernon Dursley did actually love the woman that was Petunia Evans.

Too bad the woman he loved had been radically altered by powers beyond his comprehension.

"No Vernon." Her response was resolute.

"Fine then, I'll beat it out of you once I'm done with the Freak!" snarled Vernon as he advanced of the pair.

Then the door burst open, stalling him.

'What the bloody hell was that?' he raged, his face turning to see a police officer coming through the front door, her hand on her gun holster as she cautiously approached. Seeing the cop, Vernon's brain froze his eyes turning back to the Freak and Petunia.

"Sir, I'm going to ask you to please calm down and come with me." The officer requested. Vernon blustered.

"But I haven't done anything!" he argued.

"But you have sir, you were speeding down the street just now, and threatened harm on your wife and son just now." The officer disputed. That last part setting Vernon off, he hated being associated with that freak!

"That freak is not my son! It's a monster that should have been killed like his freak parents!" he bellowed.

"No Vernon, the only monster here is you, for trying to harm such a sweet innocent boy that hasn't ever done anything to you." Defended Petunia.

Vernon's face was beginning to change shades to a deep red as he heard his wife's words, his hands clenching into meaty fists.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to come with me, you can either come quietly or in cuffs, it's up to you but you will be coming with me. I was only going to issue a speeding infringement but you've escalated the issue."

"The hell I will!" Vernon cried before charging at the officer, who when Vernon got within distance, took hold of Vernon's arm and used the man's own momentum to flip him on his back, and given Vernon's weight that was quite a feat in and of itself.

The second police officer came out from behind and assisted in transporting the large man to their car to take him to the station to be detained.

Vernon of course did not go quietly, as he ranted and raved about freaks corrupting his wife and destroying his life.

Petunia and Harry watched from the door as the police drove off with Vernon. It was only after the cop car had vanished out of sight that Harry let out a sigh of relief.

Then screaming hit Harry and Petunia's ears.

It was Dudley.

"Mummy! Get me out of the car!" the little fat boy wailed from the window he'd wound down. Petunia sighed ruefully before going to the car on the driveway.

"Dudley, Harry can get out of the car himself, so you can to, afterwards come inside, we need to have a talk." Petunia told her son as she retrieved the car keys that Vernon had left inside the ignition in his haste to dish out his version of punishment.

Dudley, for his part, was totally stunned, his mother never talked to him like that, his mom and dad only ever spoke to the Freak like that!

What the heck was going on with his mom? And why did his dad get taken away by the cops? And why was his mom acting like the Freak was Dudley?

Questions spilled through the pudgy boys mind as he waddled to the front door, trying to push the Freak out of his path as he did so. An action his mom saw and intercepted, bewildering the stout boy even more.

'What the hell was going on?!' Dudley asked himself.

"Dudley that behaviour won't be tolerated anymore, try that again and you'll go to the cupboard." Petunia told her son making him stumble in shock.

"But that the Freaks room!" Dudley spat back instantly.

"Not anymore, Harry's getting the room upstairs by the bathroom." Petunia informed him. Both Dudley and Harry gaped at Petunia like fish out of water.

"But that's my room!" Dudley complained, very loudly.

"All it's used for is storing your vast amounts of toys, which you will be cleaning up before dinner. Do you understand me?"

Dudley stared at his mom like she was an alien, this wasn't like her at all!

* * *

AN: Harry has hacked into the wards around Privet Drive and changed everything!

What will happen next?

Parts of this were really hard to put into words, so i'm sorry if some of the technical 'how Harry hacked the wards' didn't make as much sense as it should, i may come back to that part and redo it if i can think of a better way to articulate it. and yes i understand that the letter left on baby Harry wouldn't have been so magically significant to the wards, but i needed to use something and that was the best solution i could think up. call it a cop out if you want, i don't care, it's done, move on.

it was quite strange writing a nice Petunia so soon after writing the last Doomsday peice, its a bit like a seesaw in a way, ha


	4. Chapter 4

AN: This was a little tricky to write, let me tell you, a lot easier than writing Doomsday though which is giving me trouble.

you know when you know the events you want to actually write about but your not up to that part yet and don't know when you're going to get up to it? that's what i'm going through with this story and Doom.

it's still lots of fun writing though, which is my primary goal in writing these, so as long as that doesn't change then we're all good.

Oh and going over my story stats, this is my most followed story, which is a welcome surprise.

Enjoy!

* * *

His mom had gone crazy, Dudley was sure of it.

"NO! That's my room! The Freak can't have it!" the pudgy boy hollered. Petunia levelled Dudley with a scathing look so fierce Dudley swore that the house got an instant ten degrees hotter.

"Dudley, don't you ever call Harry that word again. _Do you understand me_!?" Petunia all but shrieked. For his part Harry watched this exchange as if in a daze, it was a total reverse of roles.

'Did…I do this?' Harry asked himself absently as his round cousin escalated his tantrum from just yelling to full blown screaming. It lasted all of 3 seconds, up until Petunia moved to Dudley, took hold of his earlobe and twisted.

Harry winced at the sight, he'd had that happen to him before and he did not envy Dudley at all right now.

The once screaming boy was now a running tap of tears, Dudley had never been punished, never really punished, in his life and this was the first time he'd experienced anything of the sort.

Petunia frog marched Dudley to the stairs cupboard, a feat that made little sense given Petunia's body structure and Dudley's bulgy one but the mother somehow managed it with little to no exertion.

"Dudley, _never_ say that word again or you _will_ go in _here_." A statement of fact that made Dudley's eyes widen with horror. "Now go upstairs and help Harry clean out your toys from his room, and I mean help, not push Harry to do it all. _Do you understand me_?"

"Y-yes m-m-mommy." Dudley stammered before staggering up the stairs to his former second bedroom. Yep, there was definitely something _scarily_ wrong with his mom

"When you are finished upstairs you both will help me make dinner, we'll be having roast beef tonight." Petunia informed the boys before starting the prep work for the household's evening meal, absentmindedly humming a pleasant tune.

It lasted all of 2 minutes till Petunia felt within herself, that something was wrong, put down the knife she was using to cut off he fat off the beef and went upstairs to check on Harry and Dudley.

Coming to a stop at the doorframe of the junk storeroom turned bedroom, Petunia saw her son covering Harry's mouth with one flabby hand while smacking Harry in the chest with the other, no sign that anything had been cleaned up at all.

THWACK!

Petunia saw red.

"DUDLEY DURSLEY!" she thundered, cracks of electricity running across her body as she shook with rage. Dudley froze, an arm in the air poised to strike Harry in the chest yet again. Infuriated beyond words, the magic humming around Petunia acted on the primal feeling the woman was feeling and wrenched Dudley off of Harry and sent him flying into the opposite wall.

The flabby boy hit the plaster with a dull thud with enough force to heavily crack it luckily enough for Dudley, not hitting his head causing any head trauma. For a moment Dudley stayed suspended in the dented wall before he slid down to the ground unconscious into a puddle of piss.

It was a total role reversal with Petunia fussing all over Harry and ignoring Dudley.

Petunia unconsciously began to use the magic she didn't know how to control at all (it being only a day since she received it), so focused on Harry's injuries, funnelled her gifted power back to the source, which began healing him.

Not that Petunia actually noticed any of this, as she was cradling a sobbing Harry to her chest doing everything she could to comfort her injured nephew as the green eyed boy sobbed through his pain.

Minutes later Harry's crying subsided and he pulled away from Petunia to look at her properly.

"Thank you Aunty." His words, so heartfelt, made Petunia cry in happiness as she embraced Harry again. As they sniffled however they inevitably caught the stench of urine in the room, both Harry and Petunia turning their heads to see a passed out Dudley.

Harry's face scrunched up in revulsion.

"Please don't make me clean that up." Begged Harry. Petunia laughed merrily.

"Of course not Harry, Dudley will go into the cupboard for the night and in the morning he'll clean it…" Petunia paused a moment. "I did say this would be your room when it was cleaned up, but after this…after _this_ you're moving into Dudley's room, Dudley has… marked his territory in here."

Harry just hugged Petunia tighter in response, muffling a giggle.

Later on, Dudley woke up with a throbbing back in a dark enclosed space with a lot of _somethings_ crawling over him.

His pig like shrieking was promptly ignored by an aunty and nephew who were eating dinner.

"Harry, I was thinking, as tomorrow is a Sunday we could go out to the shop and get you some new clothes that fit, these rags barely pass as clothes… why I had you wearing them is beyond me." Petunia decided as they ate. "Afterwards, if things go well, we will go to Diagon Alley, I will need to get some help controlling the magic you've given me and that's the best place to look for it."

Agreeing with his Aunt's decision Harry and Petunia finished up their meal and cleaned up, before going to bed, meanwhile Dudley was crying quietly under the stairs.

'This is a nightmare! When am I going to wake up?!' the fat boy thought.

* * *

Meanwhile at the police station, Vernon was brewing up a storm in his cell, yelling at everyone that would listen that none of this was his fault, it was the Freak's fault and he was totally innocent.

"So you're saying," the police officer taking his statement. "That it was this… _Freak's_ … fault that you ran a red light causing a traffic accident, put your son's life in danger, and threatened to kill a small boy for something he supposedly did to your wife? Is that correct?"

"That thing is not a boy! It's a freak that I should have drowned the day I found him on my doorstep!" bellowed Vernon.

'Great…I'm dealing with a psychopath.' The officer thought as he continued his questioning. 'And I haven't even gotten to his charge tackling an officer…why did I have to be the one to draw the short straw?'

* * *

Without fear of punishment hanging over him anymore Harry began playing with the glowing symbols floating around in his home, not too much, just in case he accidentally changed something else reversing anything that had changed his aunt into the one person that Harry could ever remember making him feel loved.

His playtime, over the weeks' since Vernon's arrest, had eventually led to Harry discovering the Interface, a projection that hovered over his open palm that had clusters of symbols that Harry had seen before but as just as confused at what they meant.

He didn't have as much free alone time as he used to now that Petunia watched Dudley for any sign of harrying, meaning that Harry now was encouraged to do his very best in school. With his primary reason of holding back taken out of the equation Harry took to his studies like a fish to water, his standing in class improving in leaps and bounds, a feat that greatly impressed his teachers so much they asked Petunia to come in for a meeting one day after school.

"Mrs Dursley, your nephew's improvements are truly incredible… I have to wonder what brought on this change. Not to mention your son has changed as well, Dudley used to be so loud and unruly and now he's much quieter." Harry's homeroom Teacher said.

"This change in their behaviour is most likely due to my husband's arrest a few weeks ago." Petunia answered.

"Arrested?! Why?" the teacher asked, scandalized.

"I don't really like to talk about this, but for a long time Vernon was a very hands on, _physical_ parent, especially in the discipline area; when Harry and Dudley started school Vernon made it clear to Harry that he wasn't to be better than Dudley whilst he lived under his roof. Vernon even let Dudley play fight with Harry as a way to enforce this." Petunia revealed, ashamed.

"Surely you don't mean your husband let Dudley beat on Harry?" the teacher asked aghast. To allow such behaviour to fester in children was abhorrent.

"Dudley had watched Vernon's attitude towards Harry, which was never good, and copied his father… it escalated from there I'm ashamed to say." Petunia let out a sigh, recomposing herself. "With Vernon gone for the time being, Dudley no longer has the freedom to do as he used to; I'm quite happy that this has had an effect on both Harry and Dudley's behaviour at school."

"So am I and the rest of Harry and Dudley's teachers… though I feel I must tell you Mrs Dusley-"

"Petunia, please." Petunia insisted.

"Petunia…Harry has on several occasions been seen by a few teachers holding one of his palms up to eye level looking at it in awe and we are at a loss as to the meaning of this behaviour, when this happens he becomes very distracted."

"I…see…thank you for being this to my attention, I will speak with Harry about this."

With that said, the meeting wrapped up and Petunia collected her boys and returned home.

When they got home Petunia told Harry and Dudley they could have a light snack before starting their homework, reading children's book borrowed from the classroom.

As usual Harry obeyed but Dudley tried to kick up a fuss.

"I don't wanna! I wanna play!" he whined, revving up for a tantrum. Petunia stared at Dudley, an even look that had Dudley stop his fit in an instant.

"Do it or it's the cupboard with the spiders." Petunia warned. Dudley stilled, he really didn't like that cupboard. "And Dudley, you better be careful with those books. Don't. Rip. Them. Up" Petunia warned the tubby boy before letting him go.

"Harry," Petunia began, sitting across from Harry at the table as he eat. "The teachers tell me that you seem to be doing this lately," Petunia demonstrated the behaviour described to her from the teacher. "Can you tell me what this means, what does it do?"

Harry ducked his head, a bit embarrassed.

"I… I can bring up this blue ball in my hands when I do that, it's got the weird symbols flying around in it but I don't understand them much." Harry answered, his cheeks turning pink.

"Harry…can you please only do that at home? Your teacher tells me that you become very distracted from class when you do that." Petunia requested. Harry's eyes dimmed, saddened.

"I'm not saying you can't do it Harry, just not where other people can see, magic blue balls with symbols in them should be played with where I can see it, just in case something happens. Understand?"

"Yes aunty, I understand."

There was a few moments quiet till Petunia thought of something.

"Harry, when you're finished eating could you draw some of the symbols you see in this ball?" this had Harry pause.

"I…can try, they're all funny looking and they move around a lot."

A little later as Petunia watched Harry hold his palm to his eyes, going back and forth from his palm to the sheet of paper that Petunia had given him to draw on.

"When you think you've done enough tell me so I can look okay?" Petunia asked before leaving the room to check on Dudley, whom she had left in the living room to read his books.

He was watching cartoons on TV. Miffed at the sight Petunia snatched up the remote control and turned it off.

"I said read your books not watch TV." She reprimanded. Dudley puffed up.

"BUT HARRY'S DOING FUN STUFF, WHY CAN'T I?" he cried out.

"Harry will do his reading after he's finished showing me these things he's seeing, if I have to I'll watch you do your reading so I know you are doing it. And you will be going in the cupboard for yelling." She told Dudley before taking him by the arm to the cupboard under the stairs.

"Auntie, I think I'm done." Petunia heard Harry call. Returning to Harry at the dining room table Petunia picked up the paper to have a look.

"These…look familiar…I think I know what this is." Petunia told Harry after a few moments, ignoring the crying coming from the stairs cupboard.

"You do? What is it?" Harry asked excited.

"I'm not completely sure Harry, but what I think your seeing is magic language; when your mother went to Hogwarts she had homework that looked like this, I don't remember much more than that, I'm sorry."

"Aww."

"Now don't worry Harry, When I go to the store to get you more clothes, the ones I bought for you a few weeks ago after your uncle was arrested aren't enough for a growing boy like you, I'll see if I can go to the magical store to find books on this language." Petunia said, trying to placate a sad Harry. Harry perked right back up.

"Really?"

"Yes really. But if I find the books you need, they might be too grown up for you to understand, so don't get too excited."

"Okay…" Harry said looking to the ground before looking right back up a few seconds later, a determined glint in his eyes. "If they are too grown up, then I'll just learn to read more grown up stuff when you do find them."

Petunia had to give it to Harry, he was enthusiastic.

* * *

AN: what Harry's seeing in his blue ball is a bit like the matrix, in a way, and the language is similar to arithmancy and Runes.

This blue ball is, obviously the Master Key that Harry's playing around with, like a child playing with a nuke.

lets see what happens ey?!

Feedback is, as always, greatly appreciated.


	5. Chapter 5

AN: Back so soon, I was on a roll, so I figured, why stop there? Lets keep going!

And here we are.

Thank you very much to those that reviewed, I am tremendously grateful for the time you've taken to give me your feedback.

And whilst taking a quick squiz at the stats I see 61 people have Favorited this little fic of mine, which is **awesome** , I feel incredibly honoured.

* * *

It took Petunia a few days to get the information she needed to make a trip to Diagon Alley, firstly because whilst she did have a driver's license, it had been a while since she had driven, and finding her way to where she needed to go was always tricky for her when she drove.

Petunia eventually navigated a path to the Leaky Cauldron, parked the car a whole 4 blocks away and walked the rest, she didn't want anyone to connect her with what car she drove, they might follow her. You could never be too careful when it came to magicals, just look what happened to Lily and she thought she was safe.

No, Petunia wasn't going to make a mistake like that, so she dressed as obscurely as she could trying to make herself stand out as little as possible as she entered the magical pub, the Gateway to London's premier magical shopping district.

Petunia had only been here once, when Lily had gone to get her supplies with their parents and Petunia wasn't old enough to be left home alone, so she was thanking her lucky stars when another pair opened the wall to Diagon Alley in front of her, shadowing behind them till she entered the Alley.

'I have no idea why I hated all of this so much.' She thought as she wondered the alley till she found a bookshop. Then came the hard part, finding the books Harry needed.

She browsed the shelves for a few minutes aimlessly until a shop assistant caught her fruitless search and came over to assist.

"Hello miss, is there anything that I can help you with? You seem a little lost." he asked. Petunia jolted with surprise, she wasn't expecting anyone to talk to her.

"Hello young man, yes I'm looking for a few books but I can't seem to find them, I can't seem to understand the categories that all these books are shelved in." Petunia replied sheepishly.

"Not to worry miss, you're not the first and you won't be the last to get lost in these shelves. May I ask what topic you're looking for?" the assistant asked. Petunia fished the sheet of paper Harry had drawn on out of her bag and handed it over.

"Hmm, well it looks like your after Runes and Arithmancy texts, from the looks of this, they're over in this direction." The assistant led Petunia passed a dozen shelves before summoning a ladder and ascending to a shelf twice as tall as Petunia. A moment later the assistant descended back to ground level, a total of 5 books in hand.

"These are the only books we have in store dealing with Runes, the same number for arithmancy." the assistant explained. "They don't come cheap though."

"Oh, well I wasn't planning on buying everything in store about what I was after when I found it, the one I'm buying for just needs an introduction to both subjects… he's developed quite a keen interest in them as of late." Petunia explained.

"Oh yes, well if it's only an introduction you're after then this one," he selected the second thickest book out of the five. "Is the one you want… would you mind holding this one while I put the others away? Then we'll see about getting the other book for arithmancy."

"Oh of course." Petunia answered taking hold of the offered book as the assistant climbed the ladder again. A moment later and Petunia was led through what she felt was the entire store before the assistant began combing through a shelf on the ground by her feet for a few moments before the young man got off his knees, a slim book in hand roughly half the size of the one Petunia was currently holding.

"And this, is the Arithmancy text you're after." He declared, handing Petunia the aforementioned book.

"Oh thank you young man, you saved me a lot of time searching for something I knew next to nothing about." Petunia gushed.

"Think nothing of it ma'am, it's my job to help people such as yourself when you need it. Now if you'll just follow me to the counter we'll get these paid for and you can be on your way."

A moment later, after navigating the many high shelves the two of them were at the register.

"So, how are we paying today, muggle of magical?" the assistant asked.

"Well I don't have any magical coin on my today sorry, something I'm looking to change in the near future though, I will be paying muggle today." Petunia answered.

"Ok then, let me just work this out real quick…carry the 4, take away the seven, divide by twelve aaaaand the total comes to 150 pounds for both of them." The assistant turned register hand informed her.

"Oh my, these aren't cheap, good thing I came prepared." Muttered Petunia as she retrieved her purse and retrieved the allotted amount, handing it over the young man. Taking it with a smile the assistant deposited the books into a bag and handed it over to Petunia who took it with thanks.

"We hope to see you again soon Miss."

"You very well might, thank you again young man." Petunia bade farewell before leaving the store and tracing her way out of the store.

Coming towards the exit of Diagon Alley something else caught Petunia's eye, making a sharp left turn Petunia came to a stop at another bookstore, this one different to the one she's just been to.

Petunia was only there for a few moments but came out of the shop with three more books, one about recent magical events of the current century, the second was an introduction book for muggle born witches and wizards and the last one was about the life of Harry Potter.

'I need to read this first by myself before reading them to Harry, there might be things in them that he won't understand.' She thought has she walked through the Leaky Cauldron and back to the non-magical world.

'I hope these will help him, and me.'

Before she knew it, Petunia was home and began combing through the history book she bought, she was a witch because of hers and Lily's Harry so she should learn the what's what about the magical world's most recent events.

When she changed books, switching from her history book to the book about her Harry, it didn't take Petunia very long to stop herself from ripping the book apart.

'THIS IS ALL RUBISH!' she mentally raged.

"I can't believe that this is sold as fact… I'll definitely need to talk to Harry about this, he won't like it but it has to be done...maybe speak to a lawyer..."

Deciding that she's had enough reading the fictitious exploits of her Harry, Petunia decided to turn to something else to read, lest she rend something to cinders in her miffed state of mind. Deciding to have a look at the Arithmancy book Petunia was quick to see a common correlation with mathematics, a subject that Petunia had done quite well during school.

'With Harry's magic, maybe I could use this…' mused Petunia as she read more and more of the introduction to Arithmancy.

The next time Petunia had to put down the book to use the loo, she looked at the nearest clock and gaped like a fish out of water.

"I've been reading for that long?! I still need to get Harry more clothes!" Petunia began freaking out, running around the house to find her keys and purse, which she did after 5 minutes of running through the house.

Petunia spent the rest of her day before picking Harry and Dudley up from school shopping for a total replacement wardrobe for Harry in lieu of all the hand me downs that Harry had been given in the past handful of years; something that the boys picked up immediately when they saw a car crammed with bags.

"Is all that for me?" even if it had been a few weeks of change Dudley had grown up with everything bought being for him, the thought that none of it was for him barely registered as a possibility.

"No Dudley, this is for Harry." Dudley didn't like this answer.

"But he's already got clothes! Why does he need more?!" Dudley whined as he and Harry climbed into the car.

"Because Dudley," Petunia began, her words bleeding aggravation. "Most of Harry's clothes, except for those I bought for him a little while ago, are your old clothes, which do not fit Harry at all. Oh and Harry, when we get home and your homework is done, I have something to show you."

"Oh, really? What is it?"

"Now now Harry, be patient, you'll find out after you've finished your homework when we get home." Petunia lightly chided Harry as she drove off for home.

'Patient? What does that mean?' thought a gloomy Dudley.

0v0

Later

0v0

Petunia could only sigh in aggravation, she couldn't leave Dudley to read by himself in favour of helping Harry with the books she'd bought him, even though she burst to do just that but Dudley proved to her quite a few times he could not be trusted, unlike her Harry, to stay on the task at hand, so Petunia had to watch him read.

Petunia cast a curious look from Dudley to Harry, wanting to see how he was doing as Harry combed through the pages of the introductory tomb on runes, (the pages with pictures of the many runes covered in the tomb, to see if any looked familiar to those within the blue ball) less than half her attention on Dudley's fumbling reading, she watched as Harry raise a palm to his eyes.

'Likely to get a closer look at the letters…' Petunia mused. 'I can't decide on when would be a good time to show Harry the book written about him.' she fretted for a moment before she saw Harry, furrowed brow marring his forehead, cautiously put his hand to his temple. This made him spasm for a second and yelp in surprise making Petunia shoot off to his side in an instant.

"What's happened Harry?" Petunia asked, very worried.

"I…I don't know Aunty, but I think I can see magic." Harry stammered out, still a little dazed at what he had just seen.

" _See_ magic Harry?" Petunia queried, still very worried. "How did you do that?"

"I did the blue ball thingy and put it to my head like this." Harry said, showing his aunty exactly that. "And the room lit up with colours everywhere, around you and me, and the books you gave me to read."

"Are you ok Harry, you're not hurt are you?" Petunia fretted.

"No aunty, I was just s'prised." Harry replied.

"SUR-Prised Harry. Now you said that you can see magic when you do that? And these books have magic on them?" Probed Petunia.

"Uh huh," Harry put his palm to his temple again, not yelping or shaking this time. "It's got a floaty ring around it with a weird tag thingy." Harry explained.

Petunia hummed in thought for a moment before an idea came to her.

"Do…you think you could do that to me so I can see it?" Petunia asked. Harry shrugged his shoulders.

"I dunno."

"It's 'I don't know', Harry dear." Petunia corrected with a smile. "I want you to try it please, put the blue ball here." Petunia pointed to her left temple.

Doing as he was asked, Harry 'lit up' the blue ball in his hands and placed it at her temple. Like Harry had done, Petunia jolted and yelped, scaring Harry.

"Are…re you ok aunty?" he asked a little frightened at what he' done to his aunty.

"I'm ok Harry, that… that was just a very strange feeling. I want you to try it again please." Petunia said trying to placate him. Nodding in acceptance Harry did it again, a little slower this time. Petunia looked around the room, what she could see of it with Harry's hand covering half her vision and looked around in wonder, the room had lost a little of its colour, but there was a bright viridian coloured ring rotating around the books that Petunia had bought from Diagon Alley, strings with labels attached to them in a familiar looking, bizarre script.

"Extraordinary…" as all Petunia could say, even as Harry took his hand away from his auntie's face. Petunia look a few seconds to collect herself again before looking at Harry with a strong stare. "From now on you tell me before you try something like that again, understand? That could have really hurt you." Harry dipped his head.

"I'm sorry aunty." Harry mumbled out.

"It's ok Harry, neither of us was hurt this time' just remember to be more careful from now on ok?" pleaded Petunia.

"Ok aunty, I promise." Harry agreed, hugging Petunia tightly.

Meanwhile Dudley was watching the scene with a great deal of jealousy.

'That should be me, not the freak! ME!' Dudley mentally raved. 'When is dad coming back to fix all of this?'

Meanwhile at Surrey Police station…

One Vernon Dudley was sitting in his holding cell, as he had been for the past few weeks as his court dates were arranged. Things hadn't gone well for the large whale like man ever since he was first questioned, other people that Vernon had previous dealings with came forward to heap on even more on top of Vernon for his 'on the side' deals with Grunnings Drills, even if Vernon got out of these assault and conspiracy charges laid against him he'd have a whole other pool of shit to swim through after this was sorted out.

'I swear I'm going to kill them when I get outta here!' a purple faced Vernon Dursley raved as he sat in his cell, silently shaking in a burning rage. 'That freak nephew of mine, and that horse freak of a wife, I'll kill them both for putting me in here. I don't care what it'll cost me, they're both gonna pay for this!'

"Oi fatso! Quit shaking the bed, you're making it squeak on the floor!" one of the neighbouring detainees shouted out, which only managed to stoke the fires of Vernon's sweltering fury.

0v0

The next day when Petunia woke to begin her day, she thought everything was normal; or as normal as it would normally be what with a small child learning his way around his strange form of magic he'd discovered.

This thought process continued on for a good few minutes as Petunia went through her morning ritual, go to the toilet, wash her hands then get dressed.

Coming out of the toilet and moving to the bathroom, everything was going fine as Petunia rubbed her face gingerly of the sleep in her eyes with the back of her hand.

Then Petunia saw herself in the bathroom mirror.

And screamed.

* * *

AN: Oh no, what's happened to Petunia?

I'd love to hear your theories!

And Harry's starting to explore the use of the master key, what will happen next?


	6. Chapter 6

AN: Whoo, long time since I posted for this story, I had a few other irons in the fire and this was put further and further back.

Well there is that, and life, life will wait for no one, after all we are all Life's lil Bitches.

I was going through my story stats while posting another story and I saw just how many fav's, alerts and views this story had in comparison to my other works, I'm totally floored at just how much this story, out of everything that I've posted, has been read.

Just seeing the traffic stats alone makes me a very happy man.

Well, enough of my ramblings off we go.

* * *

For a long time, ever since her parents had come home from the hospital with her baby sister Lily, Petunia had felt a deep insecurity over her looks; felt that her parents overlooked her in favour of her baby sister because of her looks, that she was ugly in comparison to Lily.

It was a thought had that clung to her relentlessly, that no matter what happened, no matter what she tried Petunia was always going to feel unpleasant in contrast with her sister.

Which was why, when Petunia had had that first glance into the bathroom mirror, she screamed at what looked back at her.

Petunia screamed for what felt like minutes, but her lungs, in reality only let her mouth expel sound for just over ten seconds before making Petunia stop to take a breath.

The high pitch noise in the bathroom had the immediate effect of waking all persons inside the house of 4 Privet Drive, a frantic Harry and a massively confused Dudley as they ran to the source of the noise.

The two boys, coming through the bathroom threshold, got their first look at their mum and auntie, and saw something, someone completely different.

"Who are you?" Dudley asked, quite scared to see someone he'd never seen before in his mum's bathroom.

"What are you talking about Dudley? Can't you tell, that's Auntie Petunia! Doesn't she look pretty?" Harry asked, quite taken in by the appearance that his auntie now sported.

Petunia now had a face that would stop men on the streets, Petunia was patting her face in various spots, nearly unable to believe what she was seeing starring back at her.

"No! I don't like it, change it back, change it all back!" wailed Dudley, turning to Harry with his face quickly gaining a shade of red that raised the resemblance to his dad a few notches; a look that had Harry immediately on edge and Petunia, shocked out of her disbelief and in an instant a hairs breath from taking her son by the ear for talking to Harry like he was.

"I want my old mummy back that gave me whatever I wanted and you nothing, the way it should be! Change her back freak, change it back now!" Dudley decried, striking out at his cousin, docking Harry in the shoulder with a chubby fist that sent Harry stumbling back and hitting the doorframe to the bathroom.

This action from Dudley caused a near like knee jerk reaction from Petunia, who, acting on the sudden burning anger from watching her Harry get hit by her son; sped up to the flabby boy, took hold of his ear and _pulled_ , inciting a high pitch squeal from the boy.

"Listen to me and listen well, Dudley Dursley; if you ever do anything like that to your cousin ever again, I don't care the reason for it, I'll dump you at an orphanage!" she spat, pulling him by the ear down the stairs to its cupboard where she unceremoniously pushed him into, slamming the door closed.

An instant later Petunia was racing back to the bathroom where Harry had fallen, to see her nephew wincing in pain from the impact of his back to the doorframe and the punch to his shoulder from Dudley.

Rushing to Harry, Petunia fall to her knees, pulling Harry into a comforting embrace, careful of Harry's injured back and shoulder.

As she cradled Harry in her arms she heard him sniffling, trying to stifle the sobs from his pain, a behaviour that Harry had learnt to peruse from as far back as he could recall, a habit that he hadn't been able to shake.

"It's alright Harry Dear, I won't hurt you for crying…you can let it out, you'll feel better not holding it in." she told him, patting Harry's back gently. Slowly, with his aunts cajoling Harry let slip his control and cried his pain out.

Minutes later, when Harry's tears had ceased flowing, the green eyed bow faced his aunt with a smile.

"Thank you Auntie." He told her with a sniff.

"I'd do it again in a heartbeat." Petunia replied, kissing Harry's crown. "It should be me thanking you, for changing me into this, you gave me the power to change…not just the inside, but the outside as well."

"I did that? Wow…" Harry said in wonder.

"Wow indeed, now I feel even closer to your mother, thanks to you." There they sat for a minute of bliss just the two of them, before Harry's stomach gave a growl, reminding the both of them that they neither had had any breakfast as of yet.

"What's say you and I have pancakes for breakfast?" Petunia offered Harry as they got off the floor of the bathroom.

"With honey and butter?" Harry asked, brows raised in hope.

"Yes, with honey and butter," Harry was up on his feet going for the stairs before his auntie spoke again. "But you'll have to get dressed first, to your room young man."

Abashed that he's forgotten something so fundamental, Harry retreated to his room to change out of his pyjamas while Petunia returned to the bathroom to finish the rest of her morning bathroom routine; losing herself in the mirror every few seconds, still scarcely believing what was looking back at her.

Petunia met Harry in the kitchen, digging out the pan and mixing bowl for the pancake mix.

"I'll be right with you to help with the gathering of ingredients and the mixing Harry, I just have to do something first, so don't start yet alright?" she told Harry before going to the stairs cupboard and unlocking it, showing Dudley cramped up in a ball, barely able to fit in such a confined space, nursing his very sore ear, his face stained with tears.

"Do you know why I put you in here Dudley?" She asked rhetorically. "I told you that if you did anything to hurt Harry like that again then you would end up here… you didn't listen so here you are. Now go get dressed and come back to the table…I'm going to make you some toast for breakfast." Petunia told her son in a tone that brokered no argument. Her piece said Petunia turned on the spot and returned to the kitchen leaving her son free to do as he was told.

A downtrodden and sad boy left the cupboard under the stairs to do what his mother told him.

Another piece of Dudley's perfect world shattered.

His mother didn't even look like herself anymore.

He was living a nightmare!

Dudley returned from his room to the dining room to the smell of pancakes wafting in from the kitchen.

"Sit at the table and wait for your food." His mother told him. Begrudgingly Dudley did so, a frown marring his face.

"As a consequence of your actions earlier Dudley, you can only eat the toast I made you." His mum said, setting a plate of two slices of toast with honey on top in front of him.

"I wanted pancakes like the Fre- I mean Harry and you." Dudley whinged.

"If you didn't hit your cousin you could have, but because you were nasty this is what you get instead, you will just have to learn from your mistake and not do it again; when a person is bad, no matter who it is, that person has to be taught a lesson, sadly this time that person is you Dudley." His mum told him before returning to help Harry miss and make the pancakes on the stove.

It was a lesson that Dudley would find very hard to come to grips with as the years went by.

His days or harassing his cousin at school in class, in the playground and in the neighbourhood were at an abrupt end and he didn't know what to do.

0v0

Unfortunately for Dudley, things didn't go all that well in the coming weeks turned months; as he recalled a policeman had come to the house to inform his mum that his dad had had an accident while he was in jail and was now in intensive care in hospital.

"…were it someone a little less bulky, the damage your husband suffered from his beating would not have been so severe; as it is however he's suffered massive internal organ damage to his digestive tract and repertory system with five broken ribs, a snapped arm, a broken foot and a cracked femur." The officer at the door told him mum.

"I see, that's horrible news." There was a pause. "Did he, per chance get into a fight or argument, was it his fault or was accidental?"

"I'm sorry ma'am, we don't have those specific details, we were only told the bare minimum before being told to come speak to you in person rather than over the phone, as there seems to be some kind of interference with the phone lines in this area and couldn't get in contact with you any sooner." Informed the officer.

"Oh I see, well thank you very much for coming to tell me this." Petunia replied solemnly.

"Hopefully the phone lines get fixed and no one will have to come tell you such bad news face to face in the future ma'am, try to have a nice day." The officer said before departing. Petunia silently closed the door before shaking her head.

"Vernon you stupid idiot…" Petunia muttered before calling for Dudley to give him the bad news.

Having the news that his dad had been hurt so bad from the police was one thing, but to hear from his own mother speaking about his dad like that set him off and he lashed out at her, striking out at his mum with a clenched fist to the face.

No sooner had the skin of his fist made contact with the skin of his mother's face then there was a loud snap like an electrical discharge that blew the young boy backwards into the wall opposite him, though not hard enough to hurt him.

"You…you just tried to hit me! Your own mother!" Petunia cried out, in disbelief.

"You're not my mother, you don't look like her or act like her, ever since the police took dad away! I hate you!" Dudley screamed out at her.

Undeterred by her sons words, which if the circumstances were different would have destroyed Petunia Dursley's world; she took hold of her son by the arm and led him to the stairs cupboard, slamming the door shut before locking it and going back to the study with a determined glint in her eye.

Unknowingly to Petunia, as Dudley was screaming at his mother, Harry had unconsciously tapped into the Domes code and added in a new line:

You had to love those under this roof to stay here.

Meeting Harry's eyes, Petunia took note of the awed look Harry was giving her.

"Harry, what is it?" she asked.

"The magic symbols have changed for some reason around you, I don't understand why but they seem to be singing, like something really big happened…was it that loud snap just then?" Harry asked, confused.

"Yes I think it was, whatever that loud snap was, was definitely what changed the symbols, I can actually feel it now that the shock of what Dudley just did has worn off." Petunia answered as she began to look through a stack of books on a shelf.

Harry's face sprouted a dark scowl.

"I can't believe that Dudley tried to hit you."

"I wish I could say I didn't, but truthfully I had a sinking feeling that something like this would happen, ever since your uncle was taken by the police I had a sinking feeling something like this would happen, I just didn't know how to deal with it, and that delay has led us to this." She told her nephew, taking out a thick book and opening it on the desk.

"What are you doing auntie?" Harry asked, a little worried for his auntie as the magical code circling his auntie changed its tone. Petunia held off an answer for a dozen seconds till she found the right page with the right number and began to dial.

"I'm going to make a phone call, so please don't try talk to me or make any loud noise until I'm finished, ok Harry?" Petunia asked gently as the phone began to ring.

"Ok Auntie, I'll be quiet." Harry promised, pinching his index finger and thumb and drawing them across his mouth like a zip. Petunia's hard gaze melted a little bit at Harry's small act, before the phone stopped ringing; someone had picked up on the other end.

"Hello Surrey Child Services? Yes hello, this is Petunia Dursley née Evans I was calling to ask about…"

0v0

Within 2 days of that call to Child Services, several government affiliated employees with Child Services had come to 4 Privet Drive and, upon Petunia signing half a dozen forms, they had taken Dudley from the house, despite Dudley's loud shouted protests.

When the front door closed and the cars drove away Petunia let out a sad sigh before cuddling up to Harry.

It was sad that she had to send Dudley away but it became increasingly clear that she had made the correct decision to call Child Services to have Dudley taken away, as he just could not understand the increasing number of changes happening around the house, to Harry and herself specifically.

Dudley, as a result of these changes, had spent so many hours under the stairs, outside of when he was at school, that Petunia was at the end of her rope until she had received the call from Child Services that they had scheduled an appropriate time for all parties involved to pick up Dudley to take the unruly child off her hands.

In fact, it was just after the cars from Child Services had completely driven away from Privet Drive Surrey that there was a knock at the door, jolting Petunia and Harry to attention.

Opening the door, Petunia and Harry were met with quite a few of their neighbours, all primed to ask a multitude of questions.

Many of Petunia and Harry's neighbours, including the weird cat lady Mrs. Figg from a few houses down (which Harry could see faint magical traces on her, not in her), were a bit weirded out that Petunia had sent her son away leaving her with just Harry.

Petunia then did her level best to explain to her neighbours that Dudley could not handle the changes around the house after his father had been taken in by the police and thinking that Harry and Petunia were the cause of it all, the poor boy had lashed out at them, making the house unsafe for the two of them, prompting the call to Child Services.

This explanation seemed to curtail Petunia's neighbours' weirded out feelings about Dudley being sent off, making the single mother relax a bit more.

"Ah, I had a feeling that something like this was going to happen, never liked that Vernon fellah and he raised that Dudley to be just like him, I don't blame you Petunia." One neighbour said.

Interestingly, after Harry and his aunt had begun to explore this magical code of the surrounding street, the neighbours, almost parallel to Petunia herself, became less stuck up and self-obsessed and more friendly… a more altogether friendly suburb.

And this change showed itself then and there, as Petunia's neighbours consoled her for the fallout of her young son acting like he had, that ultimately ending with the pudgy boy being taken away by Child Services.

Whereas before, if this had happened there would be no group gathering, only people sneaking a peak through their windows at the action happening in the street.

Whilst the magic surrounding the neighbourhood compelled Petunia to, ultimately, care for Harry above all else, she did still have a spot within her that felt bad for what had happened to Dudley; though Petunia felt better that now that her troublemaker son was out of the way she should focus her attention solely on Harry.

After several more minutes of answering questions from her neighbours, Petunia felt Harry tug on her sleeve.

"Thank you for your concern, all of you; I, no, we," Petunia said, holding Harry to her side to emphasise her point it was more than just her she was talking about. "Appreciate it a great deal. Hopefully these will be the closing pages of a dark part in our lives, we can only hope that they get better from here on. Now Harry and I have some housework that we have to get through, so we have to say goodbye now."

Slowly the crowd at 4 Privet Drive dispersed, allowing Petunia to close the door, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Hopefully we can avoid such questionings in the future, right Harry?" Petunia asked with a weak smile.

Not one to like crowds either, Harry happily agreed, before his face grew contemplative, his mind going back to Mrs Figg.

A look that Petunia picked up on.

"What is it? What's got you thinking?"

"It's …Mrs Figg…she's got signs of being around magic…like she lives around it, I think she might be watching us, watching _me_." Harry said, his imagination running away from him, coming up with the most bizarre scenarios.

"Relax Harry, I'll speak with Mrs Figg when you go to school tomorrow and ask her about it; everything will be just fine, you'll see." Petunia said, trying her best to console her nephew and his overworking imagination.

"What if she is an alien cat from outer space that eats magical people like you and me, why else would she have so many cats, maybe she's feeding people like you and me to her cats? Or a cat people person training up an army to take over the world? Maybe she just eats cats? Or maybe she…"

Petunia mentally groaned, this was going to be a long afternoon/evening.

* * *

AN: You would not believe how long it took me to write this thing, and as i'm not a professional writer (like almost everyone on , lets be honest here, if we were we wouldn't be writing on this site or any others like it) i know there's going to be mistakes, i'll pick them off as i reread these posts, yes i read these things too, reading in different formats reveals errors you would otherwise miss, if you didn't already know xD.

as this IS a fanfic, there is something i want to say about reviews, so if you were kind enough to stick around and read the AN here is comes.

*Takes a deep breathe*

Lack of reviews is the greatest killer of fanfic writers out there and of stories of writers. Here are just a few things that you, yes you the reader, can help prevent this from happening.

Drop a review every other chapter or every chapter. It may not seem like much, but reviews are actually what many of us want to see. That, and hits. Hits do make us happy, but we don't really know if people like our story or not.

Send an email. While usually, We would prefer a review, emails are just as good. Really, it warms our hearts to communicate with another reader or writer.

And Finally...

What you call being "too lazy to review" is what we call "a flame to the pages" as the writers. That one minute or two that you felt "too lazy" to review is another minute of creeping discouragement that all writers feel as they begin to think...

And I'm done. Now if you are or aren't familiar with what has been written up above, this was taken from a bio from a friend of a friend and while it is not my own words, it is something that i am an avid believer in.

I just hope you will take a moment to consider it.

Till next time.

(Oh and no, the next end chapter AN won't be this long next time, i'm 85% to 90% sure on that.)

Heh.


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